In today's world, the growth in popularity of computers and the Internet has fueled an increasing availability of information. Computers and the Internet have simplified searching for information as compared to searching through hardcopies of books and articles in a library. An Internet user typically enters and submits requests for information (queries) through a search engine. The search engine scrutinizes searchable digital documents on the Internet, identifies relevant information, and returns a list of documents deemed relevant to the query entered by the user. In addition, the search engine displays a link to each document. The search engine may also display a little information in the document accessible through the link.
One problem in a conventional search system is that, even if the documents are ordered in terms of predicted relevance to the search query, they may not be ordered in accordance with the interests of the user. Another problem in a conventional search system is that information that may be included with the link to a document may not be the information of greatest interest to the user. Therefore, an Internet user who is seeking information about an item, such as a product or service, may have to review documents available through multiple links in order to find a single item matching his interests. This process can be tedious and time-consuming. Furthermore, if the user would like to assess multiple items and decide among them, for instance choose a product from a list of competing products, he may be faced with hundreds or even thousands of links to documents about items that may or may not match his interests. It can be tedious and time-consuming for the user to review the documents, identify the ones of greatest interest, obtain all of the related information of interest to the user from them, and then form opinions about a list of items.